Matt Welch and Katherine Manguward talk with Nick Gillespie about the complicated relationship between individual liberty and coronavirus policies. Also, there will be tax discussion and updated reconciliation bill information on Monday. Roundtable Reason.
Show:
0:32. Does refusing to give the vaccine equal “exercising liberty to kill”? How does freedom relate to COVID-19 policies?
26:57 Weekly Listener Question: A common argument for sales taxes and value-added tax is the fact that these increase costs of goods which low-income people rely upon. An economic and tax perspective that is simplistically based on taxes would dictate that all taxes will eventually be paid by consumers. This means that product prices will be adjusted in order to keep profitability, regardless of the fact that the taxes paid to government are a multiplier for the payment of labor or value added goods. Does this mean that I am missing the argument that certain taxes cause a higher price of goods, or that they are progressiver/regressive? If income taxes are considered as total tax burden, it could be argued that they weigh the labor compensation more than the material value. Income taxes shouldn’t have a significant impact on wealthy people because the super-wealthy do not rely on income but instead on growth and value of their investment businesses. These arguments are flawed. Are there other arguments that can be used to steer left-leaning parties away income taxes?
36:30: Tax on capital gains not realized in reconciliation bill How could this go wrong?
45:59
These are the links for this week:
- Christian Britschgi, “Media try to cancel In-Nout Burger over refusal to enforce San Francisco’s Vaccine Passports.”
- “KFFCOVID-19 Vaccine monitor: September 2021,” Liz Hamel. Grace Sparks. Ashley Kirzinger. Audrey Kearney. Mellisha Stokes. Mollyann Brodie.
- Nick Gillespie: “No Biden. It’s about Freedom and Individual Choice.”
- Video: “Nobody Knows Everything When It Comes To Coronavirus”
- Patrick Reilly, “Dems Plan Billionaires’ Unrealized Gains Tax to Help Fund $2T Spending Bill”
- Matt Welch: “Dems try to pass off $10,000 IRS reporting threshold as merely going after the 1 percent.”
- Tyler Cowen, “The Tax on Unrealized Capital Gains,”
Send your questions to roundtable@reason.com. Include your email address and correct pronunciation.
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